Tracey L. Knutson is an attorney licensed in Alaska, Colorado and Montana whose primary practice involves working with
recreation and adventure sports commercial operators, public
land administrators and recreation oriented educational
groups. An experienced trial lawyer, Tracey defends
recreation companies and sports groups from liability
claims, often negotiating pretrial conclusions that minimize
time and expense. In addition, she provides risk management
and training services.

Tracey's belief, when it comes to recreational endeavors, is
that risk and opportunity exist simultaneously. Learning how
to maximize the opportunities in your recreational endeavors
by minimizing or mitigating the risks is a key component of
operating a quality adventure sport or recreational endeavor
or business.

Alaska Supreme Court Ruling on Recreational Releases

On August 1, 2014 this firm, and one of its clients (Ledgends, Inc. d/b/a The Alaska Rock Gym) received a great result from the Alaska Supreme Court on a recreational case involving a release and waiver document. What is important about this case is that, though the Alaska Supreme Court has previously reviewed pre-activity exculpatory documents (release and waiver contracts) and ruled that they do not violate public policy in Alaska, the court has never before upheld a release. The Alaska Supreme Court has previously always found drafting errors in the releases at issue and finally, with the Ledgends, Inc. case, they have found a release that passed muster. (This is a relief as Tracey drafted this waiver a number of years ago!). In this very articulate decision the Supreme Court set out a 6 part test for reviewing recreational releases. As a bonus – the Alaska Supreme Court also settled a long standing question in Alaska as to whether the Alaska Unfair Trade Practices Act “UTPA” would apply to routine tort style claims by ruling that the UTPA (with its treble damages sting...) does NOT apply to tort claims. We are quite pleased with this decision and feel it will go a long way toward ensuring the viability of recreational releases (and businesses) in the State of Alaska. The citation for this case is: Claire Donahue v. Ledgends, Inc. d/b/a Alaska Rock Gym (click to view), Supreme Court Slip Opinion No. 6932 August 1, 2014.

It is our belief that combining
instruction on how to develop a risk
management plan with instruction on the
basic principles of negligence oriented
claims and the types of claims that are
made against recreation providers enables
outdoor recreation professionals - guides,
educators and public land administrators -
to have a more mature ability to address
risk management in their endeavors.